Spellbinding Storyteller
TJ Dawe carries us along with tales of riding the rails and going to sea
One
of the great thrills of live theatre is its ability to transport us from the
world we know and drop us down in a place where we have never been before. And
when your guide is as masterful a monologist as TJ Dawe, you can be sure that
world is laid out for you in intimate and involving detail.
For years, in such superb entertainments as Tired Clichés, Labrador
and
The Slip-Knot, Dawe has mined his own life for stories. In his newest one-man fringe
show, Tracks, he has turned to the writings of Jack London and proves himself
as adept at injecting life into other people's words as he is with his own.
London, who wrote Call of the Wild, spent the early years of his life adventuring around the world - including panning for gold in the Klondike. He also lived the life of the hobo and wrote about it colourfully. Dawe translates London's vivid prose into a series of anecdotes, told with such conviction that in no time, he has you convinced that they are episodes of his own life.
Dawe, a natural-born storyteller and charismatic performer, is alone on the stage save for a wheeled metal device that becomes everything from a thundering freight train to a quiet spot by a riverbank.
He begins with the tale of an epic cross-country battle between a wily hobo and an entire crew of trainmen who are not above murder to rid their train of free riders.
They pursue the cunning fellow over and under the train. He hides in the well between the cars, climbs up and over the roof and dangles precariously from metal ladders. Finally, in a gesture of one warrior to another, they simply let him go on his way. Dawe has the lingo, the rhythms and the detail to hold you spellbound.
He then moves on to create a quicksilver adventurer who goes by the road moniker of "The Frisco Kid" or "Sailor Jack." The kid has a tale for every situation and grows so expert that at one point, he holds an old salt spellbound with tales of his seagoing exploits, when the only sailing he has done is down the coast of California. He talks himself out of jail and into many a meal.
In a world grown sedate, where travel is more often done in the belly of a jet aircraft, Tracks is an opportunity to join a mesmerizing spinner of yarns, to listen to tales that might have been told over a bowl of hot mulligatawny at Rail's End to the accompaniment of a steam whistle calling somewhere in the distance.
5 Suns out of 5 - Highest Recommendation.
Colin Maclean
Edmonton Sun
August 16, 2002
